GENEVA — Israeli Occupation Forces
continue to use Palestinian civilians as human shields in its military
operations inside the al-Shifa Medical Complex and its vicinity in Gaza City.
اضافة اعلان
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has documented several consistent
testimonies regarding the Israeli army’s deliberate use of Palestinian
civilians as human shields against their will. They are forced into dangerous
situations to secure and protect its forces and military operations inside the
Shifa Medical Complex. This has been ongoing since early Monday morning.
Testimonies reveal that Israeli forces used civilians, including
patients and displaced individuals inside the Shifa Medical Complex, as human
shields. They exploit them to protect their military operations within the
hospital, form barriers behind their forces and military vehicles, or send them
under threat to residential homes and buildings surrounding the medical complex
for evacuation before Israeli army raids. Subsequently, the army arrests some
residents and destroys many of these buildings.
One Palestinian, identified as K.F (requesting anonymity), who
was sheltering in the Shifa Medical Complex, stated that Israeli forces ordered
him and three other young men to enter several rooms inside the complex after
attaching cameras to their heads. They were then forced, by remote orders
issued by the Israeli army, towards specific locations for inspection.
He added that he was forced by the Israeli army to move through
orders in the General Surgery building inside the Shifa Medical Complex for
several continuous hours before being forcibly evacuated with his wife and
daughter. He knew nothing about the fate of the other young men used as human
shields by the Israeli army in the same incident.
M.N, an elderly man in his sixties, stated that the Israeli army
forced his eldest son to enter the basements of the Shifa Medical Complex and
sewage areas. He witnessed other detainees being placed inside armored vehicles
during the fighting. Others were forced to stand behind the army forces and
military vehicles stationed at the entrances of the complex to fortify and
prevent any targeting of them.
In another testimony, the wife of a nurse forced by the Israeli
army to evacuate the complex towards the city of Deir al-Balah in the central
Gaza Strip witnessed the Israeli forces using her husband as a human shield to
open doors to sections in the Shifa Medical Complex for several consecutive
hours. She stated that her husband's fate remains unknown, and she fears for
his safety.
Furthermore, several families residing near the Shifa Medical
Complex reported that Israeli forces used young men, who were arrested from
inside the complex, to enter their homes and demand immediate evacuation to the
central and southern Gaza Strip.
A woman from the "Arafat" family informed the Euro-Med
Monitor team that they were surprised by the entry of a man in his late
thirties, stripped of his clothes except for his underwear. He informed them
that the Israeli army sent him to evacuate their home within 30 minutes,
threatening to bomb it over their heads. Upon their evacuation, as ordered,
they witnessed several other Palestinian youths in similar conditions, as the
army forced them to enter neighboring homes to warn their residents.
Last Monday morning, the Israeli army raided the Shifa Medical
Complex in the western city of Gaza amid heavy gunfire and the buzzing of
drones, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries, and the arrest of
hundreds more. Additionally, dozens of residential homes surrounding the
complex were destroyed and set ablaze after being raided.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor expresses deep concern about the
current situation in the Shifa Medical Complex and the risks facing civilians,
including patients, healthcare workers, and displaced individuals inside it,
who are protected under international humanitarian law. Medical facilities and
civilians must be protected, and attacks against them must be halted
immediately.
Euro-Med Monitor calls on the
international community to fulfill its international responsibilities in
stopping the genocide being perpetrated against all residents of the Gaza
Strip. Immediate and serious action is needed to halt all Israeli army crimes
committed against civilians and civilian objects protected under international
law.
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